Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) then decided to develop his idea of Utilitarianism from this quote and apply it to all areas of social activity. Bentham was a hedonist believing that pleasure was the chief ‘good’ and that all aspects of life should maximize pleasure and minimize pain and those that did were the most moral acts. He created the principle of utility which established whether an action was good or bad according to the benefits to the majority amount of people. This is sometimes described as ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’ of people making Bentham’s theory quantitative. Bentham said ‘the principle of utility aims to promote happiness which is the supreme ethical value.’ In determining how to measure different amounts of pleasure and deciding on the right and good thing to do Bentham came up with the Hedonistic Calculus.
Examine how both deontological and teleological ethical systems can be used to help people make moral decisions. Deontological and teleological ethical systems attempt to provide those who follow them with contrasting moral guides, recommending wrong and right concepts of behaviour. Deontological ethics derives from the Greek word, "Deon" which translates to "duty", for all deontologists, morality is a matter of duty. This ethical theory judges the morality of an action based on the action's adherence to a rule, so essentially, deontology is concerned with the intent behind an action as well as the nature of the action itself. Therefore, deontologists follow the belief that certain actions are inherently good if they follow the stated rules even if the action has bad consequences, it can still be defined as moral.
Gonzalez, Jessika Dr. Jeffries Essay #1 09/28/12 What is happiness? There are many different definitions of happiness and happiness is determined by each individual. “The Aim of Man” by Aristotle and “The Declaration of Independence” by Thomas Jefferson both discuss the meaning of happiness means to them. By discussing their attitudes towards material and spiritual happiness as well as their attitudes toward political freedom and the need for possessions, Jefferson and Aristotle, wrote what they feel about happiness. Aristotle defines happiness as the final good which means, to live a good life, by doing good deeds and happiness depends upon us.
Growth maximisation is where the firm’s main goal is to increase the size of the firm as much as possible. Some firms may have the objective to maximise revenue, this basically is when a firms aim is to achieve as high total revenue as possible and occurs when marginal revenue to equal to zero. Another objective of s firm may be a profit satisfaction, this is where a firm produces a profit which is deemed to be a reasonable level, which is satisfying to stake holders and is not maximising profit. The best example in a leisure market is a firm that has been recently set up and wants to survive so the first couple of years their target will be to make a profit and survive. If they try to maximise profit it would an unrealistic competition as
These theorists believe erasing vices builds good moral character (Cline, 2012). Utilitarianism relates to normative ethics. This type of ethics stems from the English philosophers John Mill and Jeremy Bentham. The main premise of Utilitarianism is that actions are right if the promotion of happiness arises. Also if the opposite of happiness is a product of personal ethics it is a wrong
He saw that an action had to cause the greatest or purist happiness. Therefore in the situation of war, Mill would think what would cause the best amount of happiness for people. The general rules that he would follow is: what would be the consequences of war? Would everyone be happy with this? Who would have the most happiness (qualitative).
Mill also looked at utilitarianism. However, he focused more on the quality, rather than quality of the pleasure. Mills states that “Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain and the privation of pleasure.” He suggested that humans have higher and lower pleasure, higher being the arts, such as poetry and literature, lower being physical attributes, such as sexual pleasure. This could therefore suggest that humans have higher status than animals and the environment itself, as we are able to feel what he called “higher pleasures”, than animals and the environment cannot.
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory of morality that follows the “Greatest Happiness Principle” for judging whether an action is morally right or wrong. This principle states that an action should bring the greatest amount of happiness to the greatest number of people. Here, happiness is the primary good that is intrinsically good in itself. A utilitarian would describe happiness as the presence of pleasure and the absence of pain. Therefore, a morally right action would be one that provides more pleasure than pain to the greatest number of people.
The Utility gained from each act and what would be accepted by society is calculated by what Bentham called the Hedonic Calculus. This values a score of what people think of certain acts (for example 10 for pleasurable and 1 for not pleasurable) and therefore lets society know which are the more worthwhile pursuits. Bentham’s argument is that we should be free to choose the pleasure maximising outcome, as long as we are not having negative effects on other people’s pleasure. On the other hand Mill disagreed with Betham’s Act Utilitarianism and put forward the notion of Rule Utilitarianism. This argued that the Hedonic Calculus was an absurd way of explaining rational choice and therefore it needed rules.
Expanding upon the ideas of his predecessors, namely Jeremy Bentham, Mill develops the idea of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism focuses on the promotion of happiness and the avoidance of unhappiness, not just for oneself but for everyone. Happiness, as described by Mill, is “…intended pleasure and the absence of pain…” Describing happiness as “…the only thing desirable…” and that “all other things